Unable to edit text inside <td> elements if there is no preceding block level element

[Phil]

We allow our clients to use CKEditor's full HTML page feature to edit their e-mail templates.

Most e-mail templates require the use of HTML tables, to comply with outdated e-mail clients (Outlook) for layout. Because of this, we have set our editor to HTML mode.

We have found the following issue from our clients:

When a user has text inside a <td> tag, they are unable to change the color, size etc of the text, unless a preceding block level element exists inside the <td> cell.

We have tested this on our version of CKEditor, the version on the demo page, and the nightly SVN version, and can all replicate this bug.

I've attached a "e-mail template" from Campaign Monitor. To replicate the issue:

1. copy the HTML into CKEditor's source feature
2. Select the text Heading 1
3. Try and change the colour of the text, using the CKEditor text colour selector to red.
4. The colour will not change, and many <span> tags are added to the HTML

To prove that you need a block level element at the beginning of the <td>:

1. Repeat steps 1 and 2 above
2. Add a new line before Heading 1
3. Select the Heading 1 text, and attempt to change its color to red. This should now work

This behavior has been tested in FF10, FF9, Chrome, and IE9. But I suspect is an issue across all browsers. From my testing, it is not only <h1> tags that can't be edited without a preceding block level element. It is all text elements, such as <p>, <span> etc.

[Phil]

A sample e-mail template which replicates the issue